Friday, February 24, 2017

I GOT A MORPH-O-DROID!

 
 
Last week I wrote about this toy anomaly that I discovered in an ad on the back of a "Thing" comic. These toys were the Morph-O-Droids! I was so amazed that I had never heard about a toy that was essentially a remote controlled Transformer! I did some research on-line and found little to no info on this line and that intrigued me even more. These searches led me to e-bay, where I won an auction for the Morph-O-Droid named "Valer" for $0.01! Yes that is right, one penny (plus $8 S&H)!
When my Morph-O-Droid arrived I was so excited to play with this amazing toy! I opened the package, popped in some new batteries and Valer was driving on the counter! He did not transform via the remote as advertised, but that was okay, he did walk when in robot mode though, until 10 minutes later when he broke! A gear must have snapped inside, because I could hear the parts moving inside, but the wheels were no longer spinning.
If I would have known that this would be the only time to capture my Morph-O-Droid in action, I would have shot a better video. All I have to remember the good times is this camera-phone video that was recorded in my dimly lit kitchen.
I wonder if the kids of the 80s had the same experiences? Maybe that's why this toy line flopped? On a positive note, Valer also came with these pretty sweet yellow, transparent laser rifles! These are part of the one feature that still works on this toy, the laser light feature!
The odd thing about this is that you plug the laser rifles into your Morph-O-Droids robotic belly button for this feature to work. Not the best design choice.
Overall I think I had my expectations too high for this not so popular relic from the 80s! One thing I do have to say is that the cord was not a problem like I thought it would be. It was about 6-7 feet in length and gave you enough room to maneuver your Morph-O-Droid without getting in the way. Like I said earlier, if this is the experience the children from the 80s had with their Morph-O-Droids, I can see why this toy with so much potential failed to rake in the big bucks.
One last great feature to Valer was the old school Kay-Bee Toys sticker and price tag on the box! This brought back so many memories of shopping at that store in the mall. This alone was worth the $8.01 I spent on my first and last Morph-O-Droid toy.

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